Funny writer NEAL POLLACK has a new book coming out called "Alternadad." It's about how he's a hip papa, which he probably is. I'm sure he's a nice fella.
It's a great idea for a book, as all the women who have been writing about it for the past ten years or more would tell you.
My friend MARRIT INGMAN makes note of how derivative Pollack's idea for a book is in her NEWEST COLUMN for AustinMama. She rightly points out that groundbreaking mamas like ARIEL GORE, BEE LAVENDER and my dear pal (and former Knoxville grrl) SPIKE GILLESPIE have been covering this beat for a decade.
Heck, even I wrote something about GenX parenting and how it's different in a 2003 PIECE FOR SALON.com
Marrit's new column also gently (in my opinion, considering it appears she was ripped off)points out that a recent piece Pollack wrote on his hipster dad status for the New York Times seems to draw quite specifically on a piece she had published before his called "Preschool of Rock." The similiarities are, ahem, highly coincidental.
Go read Marrit's column before you read Pollack's new book.
Then go read some back issues of THE EAST VILLAGE INKY, HIP MAMA and even MOTHERING magazine if you want to know what WOMEN have been saying on this topic for a good while now.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.
About Me
Blogs I Like to Read
- Amy's Very Cool Homeschooling Family
- Ann Douglas
- Blogging Baby
- David Rhoden
- Domestic Psychology
- First Impressionist
- Jonathan Hickman
- Lemuria Books
- Mamas Ink
- Marrit Ingman
- Martini Made
- Meagan Francis
- Mo's Journal
- Remembering Ward
- Suburban Turmoil
- The Vol Abroad
- This Woman's Work
- Women's Health News
- Zygote Daddy
Good Stuff on Being a Parent/Family Life
Books I"ve written/contributed to
Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(1052)
-
▼
May
(84)
- sadness
- more jon & elliot
- baby names
- quote o' the day
- tony randall and larry king must've missed the memo
- what will the pro-life movement response be....
- more on shiloh
- happy birthday nicole
- heat pumps
- shiloh jolie-pitt
- i want to write about your house
- big(ger) families
- hottfest 2006
- henry is a high school student
- three monkeys
- jon & elliot wrestle
- elliot, eleanor and mclean listen to street perfor...
- uncle monkey
- Tim McGraw - who knew?
- may 26, 1990
- labor inductions
- janet jackson's belly...color me skeptical
- teeth
- mamasink
- kag's adoption guidelines
- school's out
- hottfest 2006!!
- ch-ch-ch-changes
- Al Gore's comeback
- still tired
- 40%
- it's a girl!
- ayun's state of the union
- current listening
- hillbilly gothic
- the room where testicles go to die
- mccreepy
- britney and baby, redux
- woe
- don't you hate it when...
- Knoxville rock icons, and my pals, Tim & Susan Lee...
- jane, shoe fashionista
- various
- still sick
- britney & baby
- sick
- "formula 4 success"
- just a nibble
- best...line...ever
- happy mother's day
- uuuhhhhhh....
- my bro and sistah in law
- mac, jedi knight
- the new homemaker
- neal pollack, deriva-dad
- mothers genderflection
- what i wish i'd known about marriage
- virginity pledges don't work
- If your husband leaves you for Tori Spelling...
- state of the world's mothers
- seriously disturbed. seriously funny.
- R&N
- tattoos on lower back can cause probs during child...
- helen
- peonies in bell buckle
- why i shop at the food co-op
- bonnaroooooo!
- target as bad as wal-mart?
- jane can cook
- best article on risks of bottle-feeding i've seen ...
- under the covers
- unschooling
- pimpfants?
- look! it's ben folds' ass!
- J. tries to study at horse show
- more gardening
- how did san francisco become so gay?
- vintage children's books
- lockjaw
- yeah, i took the post down
- vestival!
- another poem by elliot - second grade
- built to spill
- home
-
▼
May
(84)
11 comments:
Marrit is exactly right. Pollack stole ideas from Hip Mama writers and editors and sold a book.
I didn't steal ideas from anyone. I came up with my book proposal on my own. I guess I'd seen a few issues of The East Village Inky, but that doesn't exactly qualify me as a thief.....Only recently did I realize that my experiences (and my wife's) were part of a much larger social movement that has been brewing for a decade or more. The book is my personal experience as a dad, with occasional rants thrown in. It's not meant to diminish the accomplishments, both personal and professional, of all the cool mamas out there.
But the "cool mamas" on this blog think they are the inventors of any and everything "hip"!!!
Also, that NY Times excerpt that Marrit quotes is a very condensed version of a 10,000-word chapter in my book, which itself is doorstop length. I'm not sincerely trying to call myself an "Alternadad." If anything, the book is a satire of psuedo-hip parenting culture, while also being a celebration of independent thought.
Also also: I did sell my book to a corporate publisher, just like Ariel Gore, the original "Hip Mama" did. I never had a parenting zine. But I have had financial troubles and struggles with the health-care system and bad preschools and all the other hallmarks that make parenting difficult in the here and now. I guess I'd want people to read the actual book, or at least part of it, before they judge.
Neal, I am looking forward to reading your book. I also enjoy Katie's writing and have for a long time. She's introduced me to a lot of the mother-writers Marrit mentions in her essay.
My question is this, do you reference any of "those mamas who went before" in talking about alternative parenting in your book? Do Ariel, Bee, Ayun, Peggy O'Mara, etc get a cite here and there?
Come on, I read your stuff and Ingman's stuff and the similarity of that passage (the "Iron Man" stuff) in the context of a piece about hip parenting seems fishy to me. Doesn't it to you?
Neal
Alternative parenting has brewed much longer then 10 years. It is now officially stale and mainstream if Random House has given you big bucks to write a book about "alternative parenting". Mothering Magazine was the first voice for alternative parents. She has been around since the 1970's.
Neal: You guess you have seen a few issues of The East Village Inky? Either you have or you have not, which is it? You make her work sound like a discarded copy of The Metro that blew past you in a subway station one morning.
Did you honestly never think to check out Ayun's other work? Or at the very least to seek out the work of other authors who may share some of your experiences as a parent? If so, that's absolutely mindboggling to me, and I cannot imagine that your book is worth reading.
"Only recently did I realize that my experiences (and my wife's) were part of a much larger social movement that has been brewing for a decade or more."
That just shows how uninformed Pollack is. What kind of a writer doesn't do his research? Sad, very sad.
maybe, just maybe he thought the experiences of he and his wife were unique.Maybe he didn't know any other parents who parented as they do.Of course this blog is quick to convict and crucify anyone with an opinion that differs from theirs.
I do not get the sense that the author of this blog is out to crucify anyone. I have not followed it for a great length of time, but from what I've read, Katie seems fair and balanced enough, and the discussions do not seem out of control.
I'm disappointed that Mr. Pollack seems to be a total ass, and is even dismissive of other writers in his response here. My husband , for one, would really enjoy a well-written book based on the experiences of a creative and interesting father. I'm not convinced that "Alternadad" is that book.
Post a Comment